Discovering Sicke Cell Anemia

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malaria. This helped the children in countries where malaria was a problem,
to be able to survive against that disease. What happened to those children?
They grew up, had their own children and ended up passing the gene for sickle
cell anemia onto their offspring.
This disease is a hereditary blood disorder that affects the red blood cell.
Red blood cells contain a protein called hemoglobin which transports oxygen from
your lungs to every part of your body. Hemoglobin's oxygen carrying ability is
essential for living but if there is a structural defect on the pigmented
molecule, it can be fatal. When a normal red blood cell distributes its oxygen,
it has a disc shape. But when an affected red blood cell containing sickle cell
hemoglobin releases its oxygen, the image of the cell changes from a disc shape
to a sickled shape. In hemoglobin, there are four chains of amino acids. Two are
know as alpha chains, and two are called beta chains. In a normal hemoglobin,
the amino acid ...

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small blood vessels. Diseased red blood
cells are sickle shaped and are very hard which tend to get stuck in small blood
vessels and stop the flow of blood.
The other difference between the two cells is their longevity. Sickle cells
do not live as long as normal cells. Normal healthy cells can survive for about
120 days , while the more fragile sickle cells can survive for about 60 days or
even less. The body cannot make new red blood cells as fast as it loses sickled
blood cells. A sickle cell patient has fewer red blood cells and less
hemoglobin than normal red blood cells. This results in less oxygen being
convenient for use by the cells of the body.
Anyone whose ...

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